Indian Cricketer | Saurabh Netravalkar | Global Indian

Global IndianstorySaurabh Netravalkar: India-born AI engineer who led USA to Super Eight in T20 World Cup

Saurabh Netravalkar: India-born AI engineer who led USA to Super Eight in T20 World Cup

By: Amrita Priya

(June 28, 2024) The USA cricket team made history by qualifying for the Super Eight stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup in their very first appearance in the tournament. Achieving a remarkable victory over the previous edition’s finalists, Pakistan, they showcased stunning sportsmanship. India-born cricketer and Oracle engineer Saurabh Netravalkar played a pivotal role in Pakistan’s defeat during a thrilling Super Over clash.

Oracle congratulated him, tweeting, “Congrats USA Cricket on a historic result! Proud of the team and our very own engineering and cricket star Saurabh Netravalkar.” In another tweet, Oracle highlighted, “He is one of our AI engineers and a USA cricket star.”

Saurabh Netravalkar

Later, the left-arm pacer showcased his composure and skill under pressure by dismissing both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the USA vs. India game. Facing many of his former teammates, Netravalkar described the game as an “emotional moment,” having once played for India’s Under-19 team before pursuing his American dream. Despite the USA not qualifying for the semifinals, Saurabh Netravalkar stood out and emerged as the face of USA cricket.

Juggling two demanding careers

We seldom come across a successful professional cricketer who has an equally successful career outside the realm of sports. A principal member of technical staff at Oracle, Saurabh Netravalkar is one such rare cricketer. A left-arm medium-fast bowler, Saurabh has has even captained the USA national team, representing the United States in international cricket. He juggles his corporate role and also plays for the Washington Freedom, an American professional Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Major League Cricket (MLC).

It’s not easy to excel in two very demanding jobs. Saurabh works odd hours on tours and even on his team bus to meet his corporate responsibilities.

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Not new to outstanding performances, Saurabh has been India’s highest wicket taker in the 2010 Under 19 World Cup in New Zealand, and was the man of the series in the tri-nations U-19 tournament in South Africa. The Mumbai-born was also named the best junior cricketer in India in 2009/10.

When his cricketing career was just taking off in India, he had moved to the US to pursue his higher studies.

Choosing academics over sports

When someone possesses a brilliant academic record in computer science engineering from one of the nation’s premier institutions, lucrative and stable employment opportunities abroad provide a constant allure. This led Saurabh, an alumnus of the Sardar Patel Institute of Technology in Mumbai to pursue his masters abroad, that too at an Ivy League school, and subsequently bag a lucrative job at Oracle.

However, the cricketer in him was not able to stay away from the sport for long. With his dedication, coupled with luck, he has become a prominent cricketer in the United States in a short span of time. Saurabh has been efficiently giving action-packed performances with his ability to effortlessly swing the ball in both directions.

Saurabh Netravalkar in action

The hard decision

He was 23 when he had to take the crucial decision regarding his career path. The Mumbai boy, who had already proven his mettle as a skilled left-arm pacer, ultimately opted to prioritise further education in the United States, relinquishing his aspirations of a cricketing career in India. This decision came two years after his inaugural match in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy back in 2013, where he played against Karnataka, a match that also featured his former India Under-19 teammate, KL Rahul.

“It was a very emotional decision for me to leave cricket behind and come to the US to pursue higher education,” the Mumbai-born cricketer said in an interview.

Unforgettable experiences

For Saurabh, his experiences in his short but successful cricketing career in India are significant. Those experiences have helped him to charter a fresh path in the world of U.S. cricket.

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He cherishes participating in the BCCI Corporate Trophy as a member of the Air India team under the leadership of the renowned Indian cricketer of that era, Yuvraj Singh. Other present-day Indian cricket stars like Suresh Raina were also part of the tournament. “My performance in that competition was commendable, and it played a pivotal role in my selection for the India Under-19 squad,” he shared. He had made his first-class debut for Mumbai in the 2013–14 Ranji Trophy.

While K.L. Rahul, along with fellow participants of the 2010 U-19 World Cup such as Mayank Agarwal and Jaydev Unadkat, embarked on their journey towards representing the senior Indian cricket team and securing IPL contracts, Saurabh went on to pursue a master’s degree in computer science at Cornell University.

Once a sportsman, always a sportsman

After completing his masters and entering the corporate world, the software engineer has been able to find a foothold in the United States team, and play with some of the current top players. “It was always a dream to play against top international players and test my abilities. I am really grateful to get that chance finally,” said the Global Indian who loves singing to the tunes of his guitar.

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A post shared by Saurabh Netravalkar (@saurabh_netra)

Saurabh has been balancing his passion and full-time job successfully. “I am a software engineer, so I have to mostly code. The timings are flexible, which is a good thing about this profession. So, I can work at my own time,” he remarked. “My goal in cricket and life is to keep on scaling up and to be consistent,” he added.

In Saurabh Netravalkar, cricket enthusiasts and the diaspora find a remarkable example of someone representing India’s beloved sport on an international stage.

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Published on 28, Jun 2024

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Gandhi & The Other Mohan: A childhood story takes author Amrita Shah to South Africa and beyond

(November 16, 2024) Amrita Shah's latest book, The Other Mohan, dives into a family mystery that has fascinated her for years — the journey her great-grandfather, Mohanlal, made from pre-Independent India to South Africa. But this isn't just a personal quest; her research unfolds the rich and complex history of the Indian diaspora in the Indian Ocean, revealing a world of migrations shaped by traders, indentured labourers, smugglers, and political exiles. For the award-winning author, this book adds another layer to a remarkable career. "As a child, I was told that I had a great grandfather named Mohanlal, who was an interpreter. Around the turn of the 20th century, he went to South Africa for a few years. I did not know anything else about the event but it fascinated me," she tells Global Indian. She's been a pioneering editor — taking charge of Debonair, India's answer to Playboy, in the early '90s, a role that raised eyebrows but didn't stop her from shaking things up. "It is amazing that such a magazine could exist and flourish at the time," smiles journalist, scholar and author Amrita Shah. Shah went on to help launch Elle India, break major stories on Mumbai’s

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She's been a pioneering editor — taking charge of Debonair, India's answer to Playboy, in the early '90s, a role that raised eyebrows but didn't stop her from shaking things up. "It is amazing that such a magazine could exist and flourish at the time," smiles journalist, scholar and author Amrita Shah.

Shah went on to help launch Elle India, break major stories on Mumbai’s underworld, and write powerful biographies and social histories, from Vikram Sarabhai: A Life to Ahmedabad: A City in the World and Telly-Guillotined: How Television Changed India.

The Other Mohan

As her latest book, The Other Mohan hit the stands recently, she delves into her quest to understand why her great-grandfather, Mohanlal, set sail for South Africa from pre-Independent India.

Drawing on an extensive range of sources interwoven with her own first-hand research in India, South Africa, Mauritius and Britain, Amrita covers a wide gamut, including in its sweep, the Indian Ocean, the mediaeval port of Surat where Europeans set up their earliest trading companies in India, the evolution of colonial Bombay and Indian migrant communities in the Indian Ocean littoral.

Indian Author | The Other Mohan | Global Indian

Gandhi Link

By foregrounding the story of her great-grandfather and of the opportunistic drive that led thousands of Indians to seek their fortunes across an ocean, Amrita offers a supplementary history to explain many aspects of India's present. "My book is formatted like a thriller unravelling the story of my pursuit bit by bit. An important discovery I made right at the start was that Mohanlal had met Gandhi in South Africa and had participated in his Satyagraha campaign in 1908," says a beaming Amrita.

In 1908, Gandhi was fighting against a racist law which required Indians to register themselves in the Transvaal region of South Africa with their fingerprints and to show their passes to the police, as if they were criminals. Even educated Indians who were allowed to enter the Transvaal under the immigration law had to register themselves with their fingerprints.

Iconic moment

In August that year, a crowd of Indians gathered at the Hamidia Mosque in Johannesburg and burnt their identity papers. This event had become an iconic moment in the history of the struggle against oppression and was dramatised in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. "My great grandfather was present at this event. He had joined a group of educated Indians who entered the Transvaal and refused to register themselves as required. They were arrested and spent many weeks in jail," says the author, who found this and lots of other information in the archives in South Africa.

Indian author | amrita shah | global Indian

The writing of this book brought Amrita face-to-face with a different history of the Indian diaspora in the western Indian ocean. "It is a history that has not yet been told. Hence the title, "The Other Mohan," says Amrita, who showcases the adventuring and enterprising spirit of Indians and the way they inserted themselves into the capitalist system introduced by European colonists.

It took her a decade of research to write the engaging book. "While the book is about an ancestral pursuit and history, it is also a travelogue about a journey that takes place in the contemporary world."

Many Indians arrived in South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries under harsh conditions, bound by contracts that forced them into gruelling labour on sugarcane plantations and in coal mines. Alongside these labourers were "passenger Indians," a smaller group of merchants and traders, primarily from Gujarat, who arrived independently to set up businesses. This community faced significant discrimination, segregated housing, limited rights, and high taxes specifically targeting Indians. It was in this challenging environment that Gandhi developed his philosophy of satyagraha or nonviolent resistance, inspired by the struggle for justice within the Indian diaspora.

Indian author | amrita Shah | Global Indian

The Mumbaikar

Born 1962, Amrita did her schooling from St Joseph's Convent in Bandra, Mumbai and went to Elphinstone College, Mumbai from where she graduated in 1983. A school topper, who was good at academics, she loved reading. "Geography was my least favourite – which is ironic given that I have just written a book about an ocean and movement within it,” smiles Amrita, who enjoyed art and elocution in school. In college, she was the cultural secretary and also ran the Wallpaper and edited college magazines and did a little theatre.

Her father worked for the Life Insurance Corporation and had a parallel career as a historian of Hindi film music. “His approach to work–reading widely and following research leads assiduously, influenced me greatly,” says the writer. Her mother was a housewife who had studied classical Indian dance.

Debonair

Amrita Shah started her career at a famous features magazine, Imprint. Thereafter, she joined Debonair in January 1991 and continued till March 1992. "Debonair was modelled on Playboy. It was started in the 1970s when there was no commercial television and few forms of entertainment. Probably, the owner thought a magazine of this sort was a good idea,” recalls Amrita.

The Other Mohan Author | Global Indian

Going Global

Thereafter, she worked for Time-Life and was one of the few stringers in South Asia and probably the youngest at the time. “India was not considered to be of much interest to a western audience when I started out but as it began to open its economy, the western media took notice,” she says.

She contributed to a cover story on India’s Consumer Boomers which triggered off an avalanche of global interest in India as a market. Amrita Shah also co-wrote stories on important trends of the time such as popular culture and communal violence.

Off to New York

The renowned writer was hosted by the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University (September 2009-July 2010) where she was provided with office space and access to the university's facilities to do her independent, scholarly work. She was supported by a fellowship from the Fulbright Foundation. "It was an extremely enriching experience for someone like me who was used to struggling in India to suddenly have access to thousands of books at one time. If the NYU library did not have something I was looking for, they procured it via an interlibrary loan,” informs Amrita, recipient of the Raymond-Crossword Book award, 2016 and Tejeshwar Singh Memorial Award for Excellence in Writing on the Urban from Sage Shortlist, 2017.

She had been to New York before but this stint was also her introduction to academia and to the community of scholars working on the politics and history of South Asia.

Indian author | amrita Shah | Global Indian

At Johannesburg

Amrita Shah also went to the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JAIS) as a Writing Fellow for four months (February-May 2018). The Institute is affiliated to the University of Johannesburg but has an independent house where she was accommodated with other fellows, from all over the world. "I had finished most of my research on The Other Mohan by then but it was useful to look up references I had missed and be able to meet with experts to clarify doubts," she says.

The fellowship also arranged a few trips for them. "We attended a theatre festival in a small border town and met inmates of a jail in a town up north. These are unforgettable experiences."

Life in Mumbai

Amrita Shah says she has been leading a peripatetic life for some time and is back in Mumbai after a gap of 12 years. “I have been in Mumbai every year to visit my family but it is different to move back home,” she says.

She writes daily, either at her home in the suburbs or in cafes – she has a few favourites in Bandra. “I go downtown occasionally to the art galleries or the Asiatic Library, which is a wonderful resource. I meet friends or catch a play at Prithvi in Juhu or the new NMACC,” says the avid reader, who loves theatre, art and music.

Ask her if there are more books in the pipeline? “Yes. I studied Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise in Gujarat when he was the Chief Minister and the socio-political context that made it possible. I want to write a long essay based on my study and the international parallels I was able to draw to explain what is happening in contemporary India."

As she settles back into Mumbai, reacquainting herself with its evolving landscape, Amrita remains as committed to storytelling as ever. With The Other Mohan, she has delivered a book that not only pays homage to her ancestor's journey but also shines a light on the larger, untold histories that shape us today.

Follow Amrita Shah on X

Reading Time: 5 mins

Maitreyee Wairagkar : Changing the world with neurotechnology

(November 7, 2022) Maitreyee Wairagkar likes to discover things which the world has never discovered before. From social robots to assist dementia patients in their homes, a social robotic telemedicine platform for clinicians to provide dementia therapy sessions remotely to developing Kinect sensor-based language and motor rehabilitation therapy for stroke victims — the neuroscientist and neuro engineer has done it all. A deep dive into neurotechnology Can a wheelchair be controlled merely by thinking about moving your right hand to make it turn right or thinking about your left hand to make it turn left? Well, that is coming soon! “I am currently developing invasive BCI (Brain Computer Interfaces) that can help people speak directly through their brain signals recorded by tiny brain implants. This will be useful for people who have lost the ability to speak due to ALS, stroke or severe brain injury,” smiles Maitreyee Wairagkar, speaking exclusively to Global Indian. [caption id="attachment_31463" align="aligncenter" width="516"] Dr Maitreyee Wairagkar is at the forefront of neurotechnology and neuroengineering research[/caption] Maitreyee, who is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Davis (in the Neurporosthetics Lab and BrainGate Consortium) was recently nominated for the prestigious ‘Inspiring Women in Science’ award

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Maitreyee, who is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Davis (in the Neurporosthetics Lab and BrainGate Consortium) was recently nominated for the prestigious ‘Inspiring Women in Science’ award (2022) by leading scientific journal ‘Nature’ in partnership with Estée Lauder. She is the only Indian on the list of early career women scientists to have been nominated for the award.

“Neurotechnologies are different types of technologies and devices that interface with the brain or the nervous system and help people with severe neurological conditions such as stroke, quadriplegia, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, brain injury, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) etc., many of which do not have a cure yet,” explains Maitreyee, who has worked on developing different types of neurotechnologies targeted at different neurological conditions.

I am currently developing invasive BCI (Brain Computer Interfaces) that can help people speak directly through their brain signals recorded by tiny brain implants. This will be useful for people who have lost the ability to speak due to ALS, stroke or severe brain injury. - Dr Maitreyee Wairagkar

Where it all began

Growing up in Pune, Maharashtra in a family with strong scientific background, workings of the human brain always fascinated Maitreyee. When she was 14, she learned about conditions that can render people in a locked-in state, where their cognition and awareness is intact, but their body is fully paralysed — they can neither move nor speak.

“I would sit beside my mother and study while she prepared her lectures. I would often hear from my father about his research and his papers published in Lancet since my early childhood. He would tell me how scientists work and share their findings in scientific journals which was very inspiring,” says Maitreyee, who always wanted to study brain and neuroscience.

Her father, Dr Niteen Wairagkar, is a doctor and scientist working in global health and mother is a science educator with double postgraduate in sciences.

Leaving home

After completing her 12th standard from Pune, she began exploring options to study cutting edge technologies like BCIs and zeroed in on the University of Reading in the UK. It offered a unique integrated undergraduate and master’s degree course in Artificial Intelligence and cybernetics.

It was very unusual decision to go abroad to study for an undergraduate degree at that time as most Indian students went abroad for master’s degree.

Since starting her undergraduate studies at the University of Reading in 2010, Maitreyee has built different neurotechnologies that help in rehabilitation after brain injury or stroke and even assist them in day to-day-life.

[caption id="attachment_31465" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Dr Maitreyee receives her PhD at the University of Reading. Photo: Twitter[/caption]

Communicating through brain signals

“People with severe neurological conditions such as ALS (like theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking) eventually lose their ability to speak. Not being able to communicate can be absolutely devastating,” says Maitreyee.

The BCIs which she is working on can potentially restore this lost ability to speak by decoding speech related patterns from neural activity and converting it to audible speech. The user can talk through a computer merely by attempting to speak. “The BCI records the corresponding neural activity via electrodes implanted in the brain area that controls the movement of muscles involved in speech production — tongue, jaw, lips etc. which is then decoded and converted to speech using advanced AI models,” she explains, describing it as a new mode of communication directly via brain signals.

“My ultimate goal is to build BCIs using which no one will ever lose their ability to speak and communicate,” she says, giving a glimpse into what the future holds for such patients.

Invasive and non-invasive BCIs

Her previous BCI work used non-invasive electrodes to record brown signals from the surface of the scalp to identify the intention to move, allowing them to control a computer game using brain signals.

“This is useful for people who have lost the function of their arms,” says Maitreyee, who excelled in academics and won several awards including Chancellor’s awards and graduation awards for best performance at University of Reading.

Unlike non-invasive BCIs, the invasive variety requires implanting electrodes on the surface of brain via neurosurgery to read brain signals. It can even enable more advanced capabilities like speaking and complex movements. Invasive BCIs are expensive but have better performance and enable faster communication.

Therapists at #RehabWeek really love our new MALT product that combines exergames with language training to help treat #aphasia. The concept was orginally developed by our collaborators @ABCDlab_Reading @rachelmccrindle and @Maitreyee_W to make #stroke rehab fun and effective. pic.twitter.com/Bzknhf3qyP

— Evolv (@Virtualrehab_en) June 27, 2019

Social robots

Designed to speak with people with dementia, the social robots can collect daily information on their health and well-being, to be assessed by a clinical team, thereby also improving their engagement.

Maitreyee won the UK Dementia Research Institute pilot award for early career researcher to support her work on social robotics in dementia and MedTech SuperConnector accelerator funding to lead social robotics entrepreneurial venture.

Kinect therapy

The Kinect sensor-based language and motor rehabilitation therapy for stroke can be used by patients to do physiotherapy and language therapy gamified exercises at home to regain lost movement in arm and language abilities due to a stroke. “This technology was commercialised and is now available in multiple countries,” informs Maitreyee, who was chosen in the global list of 50 Women in ‘Robotics you need to know,’ 2022.

Social robots and Kinect-based rehabilitation device are also relatively low cost as these use commercially available devices such as tablets, mobile devices, voice assistants and camera sensors. Low-cost neurotech devices that can be affordable to people all around the world is on Maitreyee’s to-do list.

She however says that none of these technologies replace the role of human carers and clinicians. “It enables humans to provide better and efficient care to people with neurological conditions focused on improving quality of life,” says Maitreyee.

Collaborations

Research is a team endeavour and cannot happen in isolation, says Maitreyee, who collaborated with multidisciplinary teams of international researchers from USA, UK and India from engineering and neuroscience backgrounds; medical professionals including neurosurgeons, psychiatrists and medical specialists.

To understand the neurological conditions and medical requirements, she also collaborated with engineers, designers and industrial partners to work on commercial translation of these technologies. “Most importantly, there are patients who give their valuable time to participate in our experiments and help test the devices we build for long periods, even undergoing neurosurgery for brain implants,” informs Maitreyee, who works at the interface of artificial intelligence, machine learning, signal processing, robotics, software development, neuroengineering and neuroscience to build these technologies.

Therapists at #RehabWeek2019 who treat #aphasia were really impressed with how we're using exergames to help treat language impairment and at the same time promote motor activity. Thanks to @ABCDlab_Reading @rachelmccrindle @Maitreyee_W for collaborating on the new MALT product! pic.twitter.com/LYgd2QgMKI

— Evolv (@Virtualrehab_en) June 28, 2019

Brain signals

“The brain signals I work work are recorded from either tiny invasive electrodes implanted on the brain that record the activity directly from a small population of neurons, or the non-invasive EEG sensors placed on the surface of the scalp recording aggregate brain activity from different areas of the brain,” explains the genius.

These signals capture very complex structure of the underlying neural activity. “My research is focused on identifying patterns in this neural activity that correspond to the intention of the user,” she says adding that one still does not fully understand how this “gigantic mesh of interconnected neurons in our brain gives rise to such complex cognitive behaviours and fine control of our body.”

Looking ahead

“I want to continue building more effective brain-computer interfaces that can potentially give more control to people with severe neurological conditions to speak, move, see, and interact with different devices naturally by restoring their lost abilities which will enable them to participate in the society and lead more independent lives,” says Maitreyee.

She wants to work towards bringing these technologies out of the lab settings and make it available for clinical and personal use to people who would benefit from this the most. Her stroke rehabilitation device has already been commercialised.

“Being a researcher, I am working on something new and exciting every day. There are a lot of scientific discussions and brainstorming sessions with our team,” informs the neuroscientist, who does quite a bit of reading to keep herself up to date with the latest scientific literature.

“Once I have novel results, I focus on writing scientific papers to publish my findings. I also work on writing funding applications. I prepare and give several presentations at conferences which involves some travel,” says Maitreyee, for whom almost every waking hour in the day is spent on research activities and thinking about innovative ways in which she can solve problems she is working on.

When not immersed in her research, she likes to draw and paint in her spare time. “I enjoy making sketches of places I have visited,” says the trained classical Bharatnatyam dancer.

Follow Dr Maitreyee on Twitter

Reading Time: 8 mins

From a gas station to a multi-billion dollar empire: The rise of the Issa brothers

(October 15, 2024) As teenagers, Zuber and Mohsin Issa were helping out at their parents' petrol station, mopping the floors and cleaning the toilet, when they hit upon their billion-dollar idea. Their story begins in a small home in Blackburn, where they lived with their parents Vali and Zubeda, who had migrated to the UK in the 1970s to work in the booming textile industry. Eventually, the family acquired a petrol station. Currently, the EG Group's empire includes around 6,000 stores and petrol stations, spread out across 10 countries. The Issa brothers themselves have a net worth of £5bn, according to the Sunday Times rich list. The boys had a modest upbringing, studying at Witton Park Academy. Neither was very interested in formal education, though and the brothers followed their parents' footsteps and joined the textile industry. Zuber, especially, showed an interest in retail. So, when, at the age of 17 or 18, according to his wife, Asma, an opportunity presented itself for him to buy a newsagent in Preston, he took it. The kiosk, called Euro News, was in Blackburn. Mohsin, on the other hand, teamed up with his older brother Zakir to co-found Europlastics, a plastics packaging company.

s packaging company.

[caption id="attachment_57870" align="aligncenter" width="347"] Issa brothers | Global Indian The Issa brothers[/caption]

In 2001, the Global Indians began their partnership, pooling in their savings to buy their first petrol station in Bury, Greater Manchester, and Euro Garages, which now spans over 10 countries, came into existence. They were backed from the start by private equity firm TDR capital.

"The boys would help out (their father) during their teen years. That is where the passion for petrol stations came in," said Asma, Zuber's wife, in an interview. The two brothers themselves are very private, and stay away from the media as much as possible.

From petrol station to an empire

However, they didn't want to just run a petrol station. Even as teenagers, the boys had recognized that merely selling fuel didn't bring in profits. They had to offer customers something more. And opportunity presented itself - around the same time, oil companies were selling off or closing their petrol stations to focus on production and refining instead. They saw an opening in making the shops on forecourts more appealing to customers who stopped by to refuel, incentivising them to spend on coffee, fast food and even groceries. To Issa, this was a transformation from the norm - "dirty, kiosk style stores offering cokes and smokes." They tied up with private equity firm TDR capital, bought up vacant sites and expanded.

The Issa brothers began acquiring the tired, run-down petrol stations and transformed the semi-derelict sites into bustling hotspots, collaborating with big supermarket chains like Spar and Carrefour, as well as fast food chains like Subway, KFC and Burger King. "Fuel sales were declining. We wanted to create a destination where you could get fuel, food-to-go and shopping. This is the formula and it works," Zuber Issa told Financial Times, in a rare interview in 2018, after he and his brother had been voted entrepreneurs of the year by Ernst & Young.

"I didn't know what they saw in the petrol industry. We had only been married a couple of years. We were actually on our way back from holiday in Malaysia, and he stopped off in Bury to see this site and then in the car he told me, 'I have just bought this,'" Asma added. Every Saturday, Zuber Issa would visit all the sites. And when he could no longer manage on his own, his brother Mohsin entered the picture.

The expansion strategy of Issa Brothers

The empire was built on debt, but in 2021, they expanded to the US by acquiring a controlling stake in the country's largest supermarket chain, ASDA. It was a historic deal, as the formerly British chain had been acquired to Walmart, and was bought back by the British-born Issa brothers for a whopping $8.5 billion.

In 2021, they became the largest outside investors in Castore, the fast-growing British sportswear brand. The Beahan brothers, who founded the brand, commented, "Since the brothers have invested, they have really pushed us to grow the business and have helped enormously to accelerate our strategy."

With Zuber spearheading strategies and acquisitions, in 2022, the Issa brothers diversified into venture investing, after leading an $80 million investment in fintech company Bud. They also made an $8.7 billion bid to buy up Boots, a pharmacy chain owned by Walgreens. They also teamed up with KKR in November 2021 for a majority stake in Jaja Finance, after which the company, which is a credit card lender, signed a deal with Asda to launch a new digital card.

When things go wrong for Issa Brothers

Not every venture has been successful, however. With its backing by TDR capital, the EG Group empire is mainly fuelled by debt, and wrong investments become that much more costly. In 2018, EG bought 540 petrol station sites in Australia for $1.73 billion. However, after having to down-value the business twice, EG is now keen to sell.

Moreover, according to media reports, Zuber is also allegedly planning to step down as the co CEO of EG, leaving entirely in his brother Mohsin's hands. In the meantime, Zuber is working to complete his own deal to buy a number of sites from EG Group, according to a report by Bloomberg. And in December last year, the EG Group also signed a deal to sell all its gas stations in the UK and Ireland to Asda, and also offload all its KFC restaurants in both countries.

Issa brothers | Global Indian

Living the high life

The Issa brothers have never forgotten their humble beginnings and have maintained strong ties to their hometown, Blackburn, where their parents continue to live. However, they have also built five luxury homes in Blackburn for themselves and their relatives, complete with basement swimming pools. They also used funding from the Bank of America to buy two private jets, a Bombardier Global 6000 and a Bombardier Challenger 350. Both planes, which flaunt the EG name, cost the Issas tens of millions of euros to acquire.

However, the Issas have a reputation as generous philanthropists, and set up the Issa Foundation in 2016. They make grants to individuals and organisations across the world, from England to India, as well as Albania, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco and Sri Lanka, to name a few, in healthcare and education. In 2022, they made a £350K donation to hospitals in East Lancashire, and gifted them 127 defibrillators. They also continue to invest in Blackburn, including donating £5 million for the construction of a mosque. Their philanthropic efforts earned them a CBE in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to business and charity.

Follow the EG group on their website.

Reading Time: 10 mins

The Astronaut Maker: Dr. Ravi Margasahayam, the man who sent over 700 humans into space

(October 13, 2022) About 15 minutes into our conversation, Dr. Ravi Margasahayam told me that he once had a chance meeting with mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who taught him a very important lesson - something he still lives by. "It was 1973, I was in engineering college. We friends were roaming the streets of Darjeeling, looking for a postcard of Tenzing Norgay – the first man who climbed Mt Everest, when we spotted the man himself, sitting nearby, and we introduced ourselves to him. As he chatted with us, he told me, 'You young engineers must be thinking of climbing Everest someday. But I have already done that. You must find your own mountain to climb'," shared the Global Space Ambassador for John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA, as he connected with me over a video call. [caption id="attachment_30545" align="aligncenter" width="631"] Dr. Ravi Margasahayam (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption] Heeding Norgay’s advice, Dr. Margasahayam went on a quest to find his own peak to scale. And he found his

dian" width="631" height="841" /> Dr. Ravi Margasahayam (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption]

Heeding Norgay’s advice, Dr. Margasahayam went on a quest to find his own peak to scale. And he found his destination about 15,000 km away from Bengaluru, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. In a glorious career spanning over three decades, Dr. Margasahayam has played an instrumental role in launching over a hundred Space Shuttle missions, which took more than 700 astronauts to space, including Indian-born astronaut, Kalpana Chawla. He is the only person of Indian origin to work, manage, and conduct research on both launch pads - Complex 39A and 39B - the same from where NASA sent humans to land on the Moon.

"I once met former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and had the privilege of showing him around the John F. Kennedy Space Center. He told me that he envied me, saying, ‘You did the one thing I couldn't ever do - launch humans into space. You are an Astronaut Maker'," shares the 69-year-old proud Global Indian.

The dream is alive

Born in Mumbai, to a civil engineer father and a homemaker mother, Dr. Margasahayam got an opportunity to explore the world right from when he was an infant. "My father was deputed to United Nations. Soon after I was born, we moved to Myanmar and then to Kabul, Afghanistan." A curious kid, he was always fascinated with machines, which helped him choose his career path.

A love for machines wasn't the only reason he became an aerospace engineer, Dr. Margasahayam was equally mesmerised by the glitz of Bollywood. "When I was around 10, I watched the Hindi film Sangam wherein Raj Kapoor played an Indian Air Force pilot, and it inspired me a lot. I thought of becoming a pilot as I would travel to exotic locations, and have a beautiful wife," laughs the NASA veteran, adding, "Well, I couldn't become a pilot, but I sent many to space, and I have a beautiful wife."

After spending a few years in Afghanistan, the engineer came back to Mumbai to pursue his education. "Some failures are successful failures. My father wanted me to pursue engineering, however, my percentage in Class 12 wasn't enough to get me in a Mumbai college. So, I came to Bengaluru to do mechanical engineering and earned a degree in 1975," says Dr. Margasahayam.

Lift off!

After completing his degree, he moved to Oman where his dad was posted at that time. However, the lack of opportunities in Muscat led the NASA veteran to move to Chicago, where one of his aunts lived. "I went on a tourist visa in 1975, with no clothes, no books, no money, and no ambition - just my aunt's house," the NASA researcher smiles, adding, "I remember landing in New York and was completely amazed. It was a big city and so glamourous. I hadn't seen anything like that before. From there, I went to my aunt's place in Chicago."

[caption id="attachment_30548" align="aligncenter" width="645"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Photo credit: Dr Margasahayam[/caption]

Although he hoped to return to the country after six weeks in the US, destiny had other plans for him. His aunt’s connections helped him apply for a master's programme at the Illinois Institute of Technology. "I met the Chairman of the engineering department, Dr. Sudhir Kumar. He offered me a contingent admission, asking me to convert the visa for a semester. I managed to do that and earned my master's in aerospace engineering in 1978."

However, he still had more hurdles to cross. "One of the biggest issues was understanding their English accent, even though I was a fluent English speaker," he says, adding, "By the second semester, I had to take up several odd jobs to make ends meet, including one at a Mexican restaurant and another at a welding shop." Six months into his Ph.D. work at the same institution, he started applying for jobs and found one as a railroad engineer at Conrail in Philadelphia.

The aero world

About one-and-a-half years later, Dr. Margasahayam bagged an opportunity to work for Boeing, in Colorado. "My boss was so impressed with my CV that he asked me join from the next week itself. However, I was getting married in a few months and had to return to India. So, I joined them about nine months later in 1981."

[caption id="attachment_30552" align="aligncenter" width="713"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Dr Margasahayam working on NASA's launchpad (photo credit: Michael Soluri)[/caption]

It was a usual afternoon in 1986 when Dr. Margasahayam heard the news about the space shuttle Challenger disaster which left him deeply shocked. About two years after the fateful accident, he applied for a job at NASA. "During my interview, the person asked if I had ever launched or even seen a rocket, and I said no. When he said how can he hire someone with no knowledge about rockets, I told him that a car and a plane both vibrate when they function - and so does the rocket. And as a vibration engineer, I can fix several problems for NASA," he shares.

[caption id="attachment_30553" align="aligncenter" width="670"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Dr Margasahayam and his father with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption]

In 1989, Dr. Margasahayam became the first Indian to work and research at NASA's Moonpad - the same launchpad from where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins left Earth for the Moon. "I was given free access, making me the only Indian to date to work on both the launchpads of NASA. I studied the field of Vibroacoustics - which is the science of how sounds can create vibrations and become a load on a structure and affect our space shuttles," he explains.

Only in his first year, he played a pivotal role in NASA launch probes to the Sun (Ulysses), Venus (Magellan), and Jupiter (Galileo). He was also the core member of the team that launched the Hubble Space Telescope - which completely changed the human's fundamental understanding of the Universe. "I can hardly express how incredible it was for a Mumbai boy to launch these 2-million-kg shuttles to various planets. The entire Universe was now my playground," shares Dr. Margasahayam. He was also a part of the team that build the International Space Station (ISS) - or a "Taj Mahal in the heavens" as he calls it - and send the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) there to study the dark matter.

[caption id="attachment_30550" align="aligncenter" width="646"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Dr. Margasahayam receiving the prestigious Silver Snoopy award in 1996, from eminent American astronaut, Pamela Melroy (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption]

With one of the most eminent American astronauts, Pamela Melroy, being his mentor, Dr. Margasahayam won the most prestigious honour in the field of engineering - Silver Snoopy award in 1996. He became NASA’s international expert and lead scientist on Rocket Launch-induced Noise and Vibration technology, and the only engineer at NASA who was allowed to install his own structure, designed to measure acoustic loads and structural vibration of pad structures. As the VIP Tour Guide, he escorted several eminent guests, who visited the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A tale of two Indians

Around the same time that Dr. Margasahayam received the Silver Snoopy award, another Indian, Kalpana Chawla, was training to become an astronaut. It was during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, that the two Indians first met, and later became good friends. "Pamela informed me that there was a new girl in the NASA Astronaut Corp from India, Kalpana Chawla. That was the first time I had heard of her. Kalpana visited the launchpad after she got the assignment to go to the space in STS-87 - Space Shuttle Columbia - in 1997. I was a part of the team that trained that crew about the terminal countdown demonstration, where we teach the astronauts how to shield themselves in case of any accidents and escape from there. I remember standing two feet away from Kalpana when she was boarding the space shuttle. The mission was successful," shares the NASA veteran, who later arranged for the then-Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to speak to Kalpana, while she was in space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK2kaPc7c5o

Six years later, Kalpana again donned the astronaut suit, boarded the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia and died as the shuttle re-entred into the Earth's atmosphere. "I was the last person to see her before she boarded the shuttle," Dr. Margasahayam recalls, "Space shuttles are never late for the landing. If they are late, it means that there is something wrong. So, when Columbia was late for its landing on February 1, 2003, I remember the Centre Director saying that there was no hope that they would make it. It was quite tragic. I and several NASA people went walking for miles to collect the parts of shuttle debris and the remains of the astronauts."

A few weeks before her ill-fated mission, Kalpana told Dr. Margasahayam that they should return to India and encourage more people to take up careers in aerospace technology. While that could never happen, in 2019 Dr. Margasahayam inaugurated the National Space Society's Mumbai chapter to engage Indian youth in the space sciences - honouring one of the astronaut's last wishes.

The journey never stops...

In 2016, Dr. Margasahayam officially retired as the Co-Chair of the Ground Review Safety Panel (GSRP), which reviews safety for all payloads going to the International Space Station (ISS), from anywhere in the world. In 2019, he was nominated by NASA Astronauts and held the position of Solar System Ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California. An eloquent public speaker, the NASA veteran has encouraged several young people to explore the secrets of the Universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZXZB3ug88

"For me what matters is to inspire the next generation to ride on our shoulders and do better than us. We have opened a path to human spaceflight - live and work in space. What did not happen in 60,000 years, we have been able to do in the last 60 years. Humankind is much benefitted by space exploration, and we have a long way to go from here," signs off Dr. Margasahayam.

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Reading Time: 8 mins

Bhargav Sri Prakash: Training the brain through the metaverse with digital vaccines

(July 20, 2022) Thirty minutes into the conversation with Bhargav Sri Prakash, I ask him, "Have you read Dr Joseph Murphy's The Power of Your Subconscious Mind? Digital vaccine sounds a lot like it, but with the twist of technology. Essentially, it involves changing the physiology of the body with the help of the mind or brain - by using virtual reality and AI." San Francisco-based biomedical tech entrepreneur quips in excitement, "That's the simplest way of putting it. The brain is a muscle we can constantly work on, and can make it do wonders." This notion of creating a wonder led Bhargav to create the world's first digital vaccine for which his company FriendsLearn was granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademarks Office in June this year. Vaccinating a child for polio, jaundice and other ailments is a norm across the world, but digitally vaccinating children is a first for everyone who has come across Bhargav or his concept. So what exactly is a digital vaccine? "Simply put, we change the physiology of the brain by stimulating the body’s immune system through AI and virtual reality. We non-invasively induce a neural response by directing blood flow to

m through AI and virtual reality. We non-invasively induce a neural response by directing blood flow to a particular part of the brain. Digital vaccines work by stimulating the brain-gut immune system at the cellular biomarker level to lower the risk of diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and obesity,” Bhargav tells Global Indian. For him, the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise as "people are now investing in vaccines."

[caption id="attachment_27091" align="aligncenter" width="485"] Entrepreneur | Bhargav Sri Prakash | Global Indian Bhargav Sri Prakash is the founder of FriendsLearn.[/caption]

It took his bio and health tech startup FriendsLearn 12 years to bring the technology to the world, but Bhargav is happy that now with the first digital vaccine patent, things are moving at a fast pace. "Pandemic has made vaccine technology super exciting. A neurocognitive vaccine is right for the next level, and we have already safely digitally vaccinated over 600,000 children through our platform. We are now working on Covid-19 prevention for which randomised controlled trials are underway in Chennai," he adds.

Chennai to Michigan - the first flight towards a new life

It was at the dawn of the 80s that Chennai became Bhargav's playground while growing up. If he immersed himself in his studies, he also played tennis - a sport he had a love affair with for decades. "I played for the state, national and international level, representing India. I began my career as a professional tennis player," he beams. But after finishing his undergrad in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, he shifted gears towards Automotive Engineering. "Racing cars was my other passion, and I loved spending time at the Sriperumbudur racing track. I was an amateur racer who was fascinated by motorsport history." This led him to the University of Michigan Ann Arbor on a research fellowship, a place he calls the "mecca of the automotive industry."

His research in advanced computation and powertrain simulation in grad school was incubated at the Business School at the University of Michigan in 1999, and at the age of 21, he became an entrepreneur with his first company CADcorporation. "I signed up for a finance class for entrepreneurs called 'From Idea to IPO in 14 weeks', and that changed my life. During the class, I realised that I can turn my research into a company, and that's exactly what I did."

Entrepreneur | Bhargav Sri Prakash | Global Indian

Raised by entrepreneur parents, he understood the ups and downs of starting a business. His mother is the world-famous architect Sheila Sri Prakash, while his father was a chemical engineer who started a business in the sanitation infrastructure space. "While my father's business folded after taking off initially, I saw my mother prodding. I had the benefit of seeing my parents manoeuvre through entrepreneurship and understood the pros and cons of doing so. When the opportunity came to me in the US, I jumped at it."

In 2005, Bhargav sold off CADcorporation and ventured into the education space with Vmerse. "We were making virtual reality programs for universities in the US, where we were taking the campus to the first-generation immigrants who had no idea about the workings of a university. When I came to the US, I had no idea about the weather or location, I was flying blind. But we wanted such students to get acquainted with the university through virtual reality. Think of it as the metaverse of the mid-2000s." Bhargav explains that one could create an avatar, and get to explore the university in the virtual world. "It was a simulation of what happens in the real world. The seasons changed, we even had squirrels running on the campus. That's how photo-realistic it was," he adds. After selling Vmerse in 2009, he dabbled in the field of investment for a few years.

Foray into digital therapeutics, thanks to his daughter

The birth of his first daughter tilted the axis for him. "It was a wake-up call on many levels. I got to see the world through her eyes." Calling the US a "land of processed food where everything either comes out of a can or a packet", he saw his baby daughter was getting influenced by the advertising of processed food and how it was weakening her immune system. "I realised technology was used by children even before they could speak, and it was affecting their choices at such a tender age. Because of this she had food-borne allergies and soon developed asthma. That's when it dawned on me that it's a case of capitalism gone mad. The profit we make from sickness is insane and it has to stop." This epiphany led to the revelation that the focus is mostly on treatment and not prevention. That's when his attention shifted to vaccines, which he calls "the bright spot in medicine." Impressed by vaccines' efficacy to eliminate polio from India and smallpox from the world, he started to think "how we can use technology to create a vaccine for the future."

[caption id="attachment_27093" align="aligncenter" width="685"] Entrepreneur | Bhargav Sri Prakash | Global Indian Children in the US using Fooya app. (Photo credit: FriendsLearn)[/caption]

As if the cosmos was listening, he was invited to be a fellow at the Kauffman Foundation in 2010 where he met Dr Amanda Bruce, a neuroscientist who was doing pioneering work in fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies on children. "Based on neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to change and adapt in response to experience), we realised that during the formative years, a child's brain is developing fast, and it’s the best time to strengthen their brain in a specific way that keeps them healthy and prevents diseases. That's how we came up with digital vaccines." With the help of virtual reality and artificial intelligence, digital vaccines stimulate the body's immune system. "We stimulate the brain through a gamified experience and use the power of self-healing through neurocognitive training. We understand the power of the subconscious mind, and how it helps in changing the physiology of the body and keep diseases at bay," says the man who read the Vedas at Skandasramam while growing up, and understood with clarity that, "Brain and gut are connected."

The workings of digital vaccine

Bhargav explains that with the help of the mobile app Fooya (available on Android and iOS), a child gets to create an avatar. "The gamified content neuro cognitively trains the child to make healthier choices, which leads to its transference in the real world. In simple words, when the avatar makes healthier choices and as a result, something good happens to them in the metaverse, their brain lights up in a certain way and due to the neural response, they end up replicating the result in real life too. The child experiences the consequences of the action. Since they are so absorbed in the maya (illusory world) during such experiences, the experiences speak to them on the subconscious level," he shares. This impacts the blood parameters, and over a period of time, biomarkers like blood sugar and cholesterol level begin to change.

[caption id="attachment_27096" align="aligncenter" width="581"] Entrepreneur | Bhargav Sri Prakash | Global Indian The avatars of children created in the metaverse on Fooya app. (Photo credit: FriendsLearn)[/caption]

The challenges and future path

Dipping his toes into the world of digital therapeutics wasn't easy. The last 12 years have been challenging for FriendsLearn and Bhargav as they had to justify the risks, the safety, the efficacy, the right dosage, and its purpose at every step. "Since it's a gamified experience, we were questioned over the child's screen time, radiation, retinal damage, and sedentary behaviour. We backed it up with many studies, and had to prove that the benefits will outweigh the risks," says Bhargav who conducted five randomised controlled trials in 12 years with the help of the Digital Vaccine Project at the Heinz College of Information Systems & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, under the guidance of Dr Rema Padman, a Trustees Professor at the Heinz College of Information Systems & Public Policy. "When we started, we faced tremendous skepticism, and we had to prove it with science and data," who says half an hour to 45 minutes of screen time (dosage) a week for six months is enough to lower the risk of disease in children.

[caption id="attachment_27094" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Entrepreneur | Bhargav Sri Prakash | Global Indian Children using Fooya app at one of the partner schools of FriendsLearn in India. (Photo credit: FriendsLearn)[/caption]

Ramayya Krishnan, the dean of Carnegie Mellon University, adds that CMU is committed to understanding the implications of technology for humanity through various innovations, including digital vaccine. "The inter disciplinary and multi institutional collaborative scientific approach, led by Dr Rema Padman, has enabled rigorous clinical and field trials over nearly a decade, in the US, India, Singapore, and Botswana, in partnership with local investigators at renowned institutions. Based on emerging case studies of success of the digital vaccine in India, there is tremendous potential to globally preempt US levels of unsustainable per capita cost of healthcare."

Having conducted randomised trials in India in 2018-19 in collaboration with schools, Bhargav saw the "blood sugar number improve and cholesterol number among kids improve." Currently in Chennai to supervise the trials for Covid-19 prevention vaccine at VHS, he is hopeful that they would be able to "analyse and publish the report by the year-end." Already a success among kids in the US, the digital vaccine is so far in use for kids of American International Schools. "We have also collaborated with a handful of private schools. We plan to roll it out as part of the school curriculum. It's a novel pathway as I think there is a big need for an evidence-based curriculum," says the father of three, who loves unwinding by playing tennis and meditating. But it is travel that keeps him inspired. "Currently, I am in India and have been exploring Coorg and Kanyakumari," says Bhargav whose company has secured funding to undertake a landmark diabetes digital vaccine trial with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

An engineer, investor, and entrepreneur, Bhargav dived into the digital therapeutics space because he wanted to make a difference. "When I started, I had no credibility as I wasn't an academician. Creating a vaccine with software sounded crazy, and frankly, medical science wasn't ready. But I pushed on. It took us 12 years but here we are," he signs off.

(Prospective schools interested to apply to become a recognised school health partner of the Digital Vaccine Project at Carnegie Mellon University. Click here for online application form)

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Reading Time: 7 min